Over 500 years ago, Leonardo Da Vinci was engrossed in sketching a series of Views of the Foetus in the Womb (sample seen at right), attempting to document the development of a human life as understood by scientists in 1510, even by the most primitive technologies they had back then.

It’s remarkable that Da Vinci’s anatomical drawings bear such a striking resemblance to the modern pre-natal ultrasound photos plastered to signs and held up at pro-life rallies in the 21st century.

Yet a Massachusetts law prohibits where these age-old images can been displayed and discussed. The law makes it illegal for pro-life activists to be on a public sidewalk within 35 feet of an abortion clinic entrance, exit or driveway. Today, the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) heard a challenge to the Massachusetts law in the case of McCullen v. Coakley.

(As a bit of background for today’s hearing, in 2000, SCOTUS upheld a different free speech buffer zone that Colorado had passed. Five Justices in that case still remain on the Court, three of whom were dissenters in the decision.)

At the SCOTUSblog, Lyle Denniston summed up the conservative position on the Court:

Justice Antonin Scalia (one of the dissenters when the Court upheld a different kind of buffer zone in 2000) led the verbal attack on the Massachusetts law on Wednesday, repeatedly insisting that what the anti-abortion challengers want to do is not to protest at all, but just “to talk to the people.” If they actually were staging protests, he said, it might be permissible to require them to stand back for thirty-five feet. Justice Alito also said explicitly that “what these people want to do is speak quietly.”

If that perspective forms the basis for a decision on the power to insulate abortion clinics, it would create a considerable degree of freedom to engage in what anti-abortion organizations call “sidewalk counseling.”

First up, a quick response to anyone in favor of the Obama administration’s shredding of the First Amendment’s freedom of religion in forcing religious groups to offer products and services that are morally opposed by that religion:

Then there’s a parody of the Obama campaign video by actress Lena Dunham, in which she told young women that voting for Obama is like having sex for the first time…and that it’s uncool not to do it. Here’s Julie Borowski’s spot-on impersonation of it:

The Economist has an eye-opening article on India’s rampant problem with gendercide—the aborting of babies once they are determined to be girls. Over 600,000 Indian baby girls per year meet that cruel fate.

Parents choose to abort female fetuses not because they do not want or love their daughters, but because they feel they must have sons (usually for social reasons); they also want smaller families—and something has to give. Ultrasound technology ensures that this something is a generation of unborn daughters, because it lets them know the sex of a fetus. Sex selection therefore tends to increase with education and income: wealthier, better educated people are more likely to want fewer children and can more easily afford the scans.

According to WebMd, “The sex of your fetus can sometimes be determined by about the 18th week of pregnancy.” Eighteen weeks is well over four-and-a-half months into a pregnancy. Some other sites suggest gender may be determined as early as 16 weeks. But still, that’s at an age that no one could argue it’s “just a mass of cells.” This is a baby, with all its toes and fingers, with fingernails.

The Economist article notes that:

If sex ratios stay the same, 600,000 missing girls this year will become, in 18 years’ time, over 10m [million] missing future brides. Robbery, rape and bride-trafficking tend to increase in any society with large groups of young single men. And because in China and India men higher up the social ladder find wives more easily than those lower down, the social problems of bachelorhood tend to accumulate like silt among the poorest people and (in India) the lowest castes. This is unjust as well as damaging.

India, for example, bans ultrasound scans from being used merely to identify a fetus’s sex; it also makes sex-selective abortions illegal.

And still, despite the illegality, over 600,000 couples a year destroy their baby daughters in the womb.

This, gendercide, is what the pro-abortionists have wrought. When abortion is made so commonplace, so acceptable, so stripped of any morality, it becomes a casual thing to kill an unborn child. The writer of the piece seems more concerned over the loss of future feminist women than the mass, meaningless slaughter of 600,000 babies a year, saying things such as “whereas sex selection may be understandable for a family, it is disastrous for a nation.”

Aborting a baby for sex selection is never understandable. The only way to stop this epidemic is to bring back the shame that used to be associated with abortion.

It’s tough to be one of Charlie Sheen’s ex-girls…but tougher still to be one of his ex-unborn girls.

A Daily Caller story told of the hospitalization of Kacey Jordan, 22-year-old porn actress, after she tweeted her suicide attempt.

Jordan’s claim to fame, other than having sex for money on camera, is that she was a $30,000 party girl with Sheen the last time he was hospitalized after a drug rampage, with a supposed hernia.

Her resulting national notoriety has apparently been hard for her to handle, with a Howard Stern contest and various media interviews, before realizing that she’s milked it about as much as she can. That 36 hours she spent with Sheen were apparently the only time she had ever been with or talked to him before—or after (except for a Valentine’s Day text message exchange she initiated asking if each other was okay).

I actually felt sorry for her, being so messed up with her life, until I hit the last paragraph:

Last month, Jordan told RadarOnline that she’d aborted her unborn child, which may or may not have belonged to Sheen. Jordan said that was her fourth abortion.

Now, Jordan has admitted the couple did not use contraception, leading her to question whether Charlie was the father when she discovered she was pregnant.

“I had the abortion last Thursday, I went home to Oregon to have it because that is where I grew up. I was sick and on the couch all day,” revealed Jordan, who has already terminated three previous pregnancies.

Aw. She was on the couch all day after aborting her fourth child.

It’s really no big deal, though. The baby could have been anyone’s. She added:

Jordan — who has sex for a living — also revealed she’s not on birth control … has never been on birth control … and has no plans to begin using birth control.

I have a question for feminists and groups such as Planned Parenthood and NOW. Is this what you have been fighting for? For Jordan’s right to abort her way to fame and fortune, repeatedly, with no concerted effort to use birth control, even though she makes her living having sex?

Feminists, this is what you have wrought. The nonchalant slaughter of millions of innocents each year is your pathetic victory.

As for Jordan, let’s hope she was smart enough to use some of her Sheen winnings to buy her own room at her beloved hometown abortion clinic. Sounds like she’s going to continue to need it.

In the wake of the Arizona shootings, the left and their media pals have resumed their high-pitched calls for gun control. Legislation has been proposed in Congress making it illegal to carry a gun within 1,000 feet of any federal official. Note: I’ve heard there are… well, an impossibly large number (between 100,000 and 2 million) of “federal officials.” Would anyone ever be not within 1,000 feet of one of them? How would you ever know for sure?

In the meantime, the media and left-wingers tried to push the mantra of “New Tone,” insisting that the Tucson massacre was the result of civil incivility, even though there is clear evidence that assassin Jared Lee Loughner had long been off his rocker and was influenced by the incivility in his own head, not by anything some pundit or politician said.

Legislators actually began contemplating crafting bankruptcy laws for states, as California appears ready to lead a number of them off the cliff. For the taxpayers, bankruptcy definitely makes the pain swift yet short. With bailouts, the pain and financial mismanagement will drag on for years, generations even, unless the dire problem with public union pensions is addressed.

As the internet rolls over into the New Year, I have joined with a highly entertaining guest blogger to present the 2010 Sooper Awards Ceremony. Please give a hand of applause to my friend and partner in political roasting, SooperMexican. We hope to make this an annual event, as we impart awards to political events of the past year through the rosy-colored lens of the year previous! Confused yet? Hang in there and it will become clear. (We hope.)

Yes, that’s right. The “Election of Recovery,” as they like to call it over at SooperMexican Central, was a deep repudiation of all the slings and arrows that our fair president has flung at us, the common rabble, from atop his ill-gotten, gilded throne on Pennsylvania Avenue.

The unwashed, bitter-clinging masses have grown tired of his budget-obliterating spending, his vindictive, arrogant attitude, and his flaccid, inept execution of his elected obligations.

While his unapologetic bending over for foreign potentates and domestic opportunists took mere seconds, we hope and pray that this latter bending will continue well into the 2012 election!

NEXT!

THE STIMULATE AMERICA AWARD

The Obama administration got off to an aggressive start, manhandling the public assets in the most egregious way in the Great Stimulus Boondoggle of 2009. Joe Biden is still working on counting all the waste, fraud and abuse that was shipped from the public coffers to FOOs (Friends of Obama) around the world. Yes, world—-as in funding, say, a $832,200 genital-washing study in South Africa to stimulate the US economy.

This year, the Stimulate America Award goes to…

[opens the envelope]

the Transportation Safety Administration!

[applause, while removing shoes and belts]

Yes, the TSA has gone far beyond the call of duty—-and the 4th Amendment—-for getting up close and personal in their efforts to stimulate the public’s peace of mind by groping all their bits and pieces. f keeping the list of all the terrorists she catches with explosives in their pants. Of course she won’t catch any, because terrorists have myriad ways to go through all TSA procedures without having their bomb materials detected.

At least she’s done an excellent job keeping up the pretense that government-mandated sexual assault of the American public will keep us safe, while giving perverts and Gloria Allred a thrill. Just what a Secretary of Homeland Security is supposed to do.

OTRO MAS POR FAVOR!

THE PIMPIN’ AIN’T EASY AWARD

In 2009, we saw the beginning of the end for our favorite anti-American, government-subsidized community organization organizing the community for social injustice: ACORN, aka the Atheist Commie Organization for the Redistribution of NeoSocialism. The unlikely and surprising architects of its demise were the spunky and gaudily dressed James O’Keefe and his saucy accomplice, Hannah Giles. You all know the story by now, so let’s fast forward to the awardee for this year….

and the Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy Award goes to…

[opens the envelope]

the Death of the DREAM Act!

[sleepy applause]

In one of the most obvious and detestable shows of political pandering in recent memory, Harry Reid and the congressional Democrats concocted a bit of political theater for the birds – mashing up the freshly plucked wormy legislation we call the DREAM Act in their mealy mouths and force-feeding their gluttonous, self-serving constituents, the Hispanic supporters that kept a few of them in office.

Luckily for our stalwart Republic, this hastily written bill was only half-heartedly pushed by our Leftist friends, just enough to secure another election cycle’s worth of pigmented votes without actually effecting any change for the downtrodden serfs to whom they give only lip service.

Harry Reid out-pimped James O’Keefe by whoring out the Latin vote, taking it for all it’s worth, and spanking it on its bottom as he kicked ’er to the curb! Good job, Harry!

ORALE!

THE TWO-FACED JANUS AWARD

In ancient Greece, some citizens adorned the top of their doorways with the image of Janus, the double-faced god, symbolizing that every entry is also an exit. In 2009, it would have been appropriate to decorate the entrance of the Senate with the gnarled, wrinkly, grotesque image of Ben Nelson, leader of the Blue Dog Democrats, who promised to uphold their moral objection to the federal financing of abortions by refusing to vote for ObamaCare. Pro-life supporters wasted much effort calling to urge them to stick to their guns, but they chose to stick out their hands instead, accepting sleazy payoffs once Barack named the right price to purchase their principles.

For 2010, the only comparable competitor for the Two-Faced Janus Award is….

[opens the envelope]

The lame duck GOPers!

[applause as feather confetti flutters down]

After scoring an unprecedented victory in the 2010 elections, seizing the House of Reps and evening up the Senate, the Republicans decided to act as if they had been struck with amnesia, teleported themselves back to November 4th 2008, and eagerly re-assumed the role of defeated losers.

Once again, the GOP filled the Christmas season with the essence of lame. The American public gave them a mandate to reject the socialist, budget-busting, impotent policies of the Democrats, but the Republicans behaved like a cheap date, hardly even bothering to feign resistance while granting Obama another nearly trillion dollar stimulus bill, as described by Chuck Krauthammer.

At least good ol’ Nelson teased us a little before screwing us, but the GOPers made all the right noises, and gave it up to Barack only weeks later. Then to add insult to injury, they let him pass his ridiculous START treaty, allowing his sycophantic press to reenact the leg-tingly adoration and unearned esteem they lavished upon him two years ago.

Congrats, GOP. You sold out the country, but you won a coveted Janus award. Keep it up, and in two years, you’ll find out how easily an entrance can also be an exit.

Wait, There’s MORE!

THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN ACTION FIGURE AWARD

In 2009, Barack Obama chin-jutted his way through the dense jungle of prescient criticisms of his inexperience, arrogance, and unpreparedness. Still, he held out the dim candle of historic hope, and like voting moths to a flame, the American public flitted and followed him towards the radiance he claimed was the light at the end of the tunnel.

And still the gaudacity of hope sustained the hope-springs in the heart of man—earnest-sounding promises were made and swallowed, and everywhere a cult of Obama sprung up, selling icons of our savior borne of mystery.

As we all know, a prophet is always derided in his own hometown, and so this year, this Revelatory Icon Award goes to….

[opens envelope]

Alvin Greene!

[applause and fist bumps]

South Carolina’s leading Democrats howled when the unknown, unemployed man became their nominee to the US Senate seat, and they vigorously decried the legitimacy of his nomination. He beat the establishment democratic nominee without any campaigning, without any yard signs, prompting some to doubt whether he honestly won the nomination.

While running for a senate seat in the greatest country in the world since its inception 6,000 years ago, Alvin was also fending off prosecution for a felony obscenity charge, wherein he is accused of showing pornographic images to a unwilling 18-year-old woman. In interviews, he was as disjointed as Crispin Glover on the David Letterman show, and at his lowest (highest?) point, he actually said that his answer to solving his state’s budget woes was to sell action figures of himself.

What better exemplar of the fall from glory that Barack Obama has experienced than that of a man who actually thinks he can save the government budget by producing little action figures of himself? This is the delusion that the American voter was sold unawares, and now is waking up to.

2009 began with a praised political figure pretending to fulfill the image of an action figure. 2010 ended with a failed political figure sticking to a ridiculous hope that his image as an action figure might save him from his ineptitude and political inexperience. Oh, also there was Alvin Greene….

…AND Finally!

The Meghan McCain BOOBY PRIZE

Last year, Meghan McCain gifted the world with a booby prize in the form of a Twitter avatar filled with boobage and, appropriately, a biography of Mr. “15 Minutes of Fame,” Andy Warhol. She protested the avi-inspired guffawing heard around teh internets by claiming she hadn’t meant to be sexy at all—-she always looked busty and bimbo-ish. When that induced ROFL hilarity, she huffily threatened to delete her account, then apologized and promo’d her new column.

Without further ado, the MeggieMac Booby Prize passes on to the 2010 winner…

[opens envelope, upside down]

Keith “MeggyBigMac” Olbermann!

[stunned silence…uproarious applause]

Yes, the Vegas bookmakers all had Georgia representative Hank Johnson as the odds-on favorite for his concern that adding more military to the US territory of Guam would cause the island to tip over.

But no, in a late year rush to snag the award, Olbermann has gone out of his way to become a master loco tweeter: Melting down, blowing up, quitting his account in a bluster and, like his award’s namesake, returning to the glory of public abuse and mockery.

To seal his emergency bid for the award, Olby’s ratings went to the bottom of the tank and inspired a series of wild twitrants against his nemesis and ratings powerhouse, Fox News. Thusly, he clinched the award for 2010‘s Booby of the Year and shall henceforth be known as OlberBoob.

…se acabo!

Thank you all for joining us on this whirlwind tour of some of the more embarrassing and brain aneurysm-causing events of this last year through the eyes of 2009′s events! Once again, I’d like to thank my brilliant guest blogger, SooperMexican! Visit his site, buy his cartoon t-shirts, and follow him on Twitter! You won’t regret it because he mostly just uses my ideas!

Have a great New Year! (and forgive the Sooper-excessive use of exclamation marks found in this post…)